Again, this is not a recommendation. It’s an idea for you to do some homework on and discuss with your financial planner. Like the previous ETF suggestion, VTS has low fees, which is what you want to look for.

A lot of wealth is created in the United States. This is one idea to tap into it.

And that brings me to a kind of ‘wildcard’ market for you to consider this year…

#3: ‘Black Gold’ Shares: Cheap and Hated — But for How Long?

If you’re up for a speculative punt in the market,then I suggest you keep a close eye on oil stocks in 2019.

This is something I’ve repeatedly covered in my investment letter Small Cap Alpha.

Oil is a volatile beast, no doubt.

At one point in 2018, Brent crude went over US$80 a barrel.

By the end of the year, it was under US$55!

But some of the underlying trends I’ve been tracking in this market suggest another bull-run in oil is highly probable this year, or 2020 at the latest.

One reason is that, since 2014, there’s been little investment in replacing ageing fields across the globe.

But every year we keep consuming oil at high rates.

There’s also a new environmental rule due to come into effect in January 2020.

Global ships will be required to burn ‘clean fuel’ — not the highly polluting stuff they use now.

It might sound obscure — actually, it is obscure — but this is going to stress the global refining industries’ available supply of diesel.

This has the potential to cause a scramble for a certain type of oil.

You might be surprised to know that oil from Saudi Arabia is often very different to oil from, say, the US.

That aside, oil prices could come under pressure if economic growth strengthens, as I expect.

And yet investors have little interest in oil shares. That means they trade pretty cheaply, relative to previous periods in history.

And yet many of them have lowered their cost bases in recent years.

That means if oil does run-up, as I expect, the margins could be huge.

You could also consider companies that have active drilling programs. If they hit oil, you can get a big lift from that too.

Of course, I may be wrong. Oil could fall lower, dragging associated shares down with it.

Like I say: This is not a sector to go heavily into without strict risk management.

One speculative stock to keep any eye on is Byron Energy Limited [ASX:BYE]. It’s an oil and gas producer operating in the Gulf of Mexico. It’s also drilling for more oil over 2019.

If it hits what it’s looking for, we could potentially see a big spike in the share price.

As I write, Byron has also not ‘hedged’ its current production. That means it takes the current selling price of oil as it goes. If oil goes up, it makes more money.

Of course, if oil goes down, it makes less. The share price will move accordingly.

(To clarify, some oil companies sell their future production at a fixed price in the future. This locks in their revenue regardless of what the ‘spot’ price does. It’s a defensive move, generally, limiting the potential gain from the stock.)

Again, please don’t treat this as a formal buy recommendation here. I can’t keep you updated or give you full risk assessment (if you want that, take your obligation trial-run of Small Cap Alpha).

As with the other suggestions, it’s designed to springboard your own further investigations.

There are a number of compelling oil stocks on the ASX at the moment, each with their own attributes, and each worthy of your further research.

Here’s a good list of the oil-related stocks on the ASX. It’s a mix of larger and smaller companies:

BHP Group Limited [ASX:BHP]

Otto Energy Limited [ASX:OEL]

Freedom Oil and Gas Limited [ASX:FDM]

Karoon Gas Australia Limited [ASX:KAR]

Santos Limited [ASX:STO]

Sino Gas & Energy Holdings Limited [ASX:SEH]

Oil Search Limited [ASX:OSH]

Woodside Petroleum Limited [ASX:WPL]

It’s an exciting sector, and worth you looking into.

So, there you have it.

Three of my top investment ideas for 2019.

Let’s book mark this edition and see how we fare come the end of the year.

But between now and then, why not give my dedicated small cap research a go?

If you like what you’ve read here, I’m sure you’ll get a lot out of it. And hey, if you don’t think so after coming onboard, you can get your subscription money back in full within 30 days.